After Inertia and Tresla completed their bonding ceremony, they needed to rest. I'd never imagined the forging process could feel so… foreboding? Heavenly? Magical?
None of those words were sufficient but they all hinted at the truth of the experience. It’d taken them a full day and yet I barely noticed. I've rarely had time pass so swiftly while simply observing something someone else was doing.
Now that it was over and they were resting, it was time for me to fulfill my original purpose: to recruit a Forgeborn. Hopefully a lot more than one. Engineers if I could, and maybe a few miners while we were at it. Some more people who could teach the refugees and kickstart our industry harder.
When I contacted her, Ari informed the materials compound had been going along rather smoothly, especially compared to everything else she's been dealing with lately. That was promising. It helped that we’d started with so many resources we could grow from the seeds I’d brought with me so long ago. She’d avoided letting Falith get involved, having our own people handle the work.
Smart.
Entire valleys were being renovated, each attuned to different elements. A lot of it was similar to the principles I’d learned. Until recently, we hadn’t had the resources to spare. With our growing network of resources, skilled engineers were even more valuable.
With Inertia and Tresla out of action, that left Calamity as my guide. She took me to one of the upper levels of the Hellbrand Spire. Apparently it would’ve been illegal for me to approach anyone else. The more time I spent with Calamity, the more I appreciated how different she was from the rest of the Forgeborn.
Her use of magic was a big one.
With a few gestures of her right hand she summoned a staff to her. It wasn't quite the sort of staff I was used to since it had a pneumatic end to it so that it compressed every time she took leaned on it. What I was familiar with were engraved spells, though they’d been crafted for someone who couldn’t channel mana directly.
It reminded me that I needed to create another staff of my own to facilitate my favorite spells.
Just another thing I’d do when I had more time.
The lift we were on used a clever mechanism that caught a small portion of the ever-flowing molten steel in a cast. Even as the cooling material was used as a counterweight, it settled into one of the thousands of standardized parts the Forgeborn used for their ‘lesser’ creations.
Things like material haulers or waste reprocessing.
The lift carried us up into a room full of clanging Forgeborn. At least they'd been clanging before we showed up. The second Calamity stepped out of the lift, the room grew quiet, the effect perpetuating itself as more and more of the Forgeborn turned to look at us.
Well, at her. They barely even glanced at me.
“Seems you're something of a celebrity,” I said as she stepped forward.
“They certainly don't stop talking about me, that's a certainty,” Calamity agreed, her four spider-wing legs carrying her forward. “Not that that's a good thing.”
“So these are the Forgeborn who might be willing to travel to help us out,” I asked. Despite knowing that's exactly why we were there for some reason, I felt the need to repeat it.
The room was divided into a number of smaller work areas. Apparently most Forgeborn found the sound of others working nearby comforting. It was towards one of those side areas Calamity led me. “The ones who won’t have ties keeping them from leaving, yes.”
Inside the work area were a group of three Forgeborn, standing between a number of complicated-looking presses and a series of tiny lathes.
Even as we approached the trio, the rest of the forge picked up, inactivity falling away, noise returning. I couldn't help but note there was more forge-speak being passed about than before we'd arrived. Unfortunately I couldn't understand most of it, not with the pure quantity. It was more of a general haze of sound than a single conversation.
The one workstation that hadn't resumed their work was the one Calamity was leading me towards, clearly awaiting our arrival.
The biggest of the three Forgeborn looked a bit like a werewolf. A werewolf who’d had its fur replaced by thin wire that stretched across most of their body, that is. The wire around their eyes stood up and stood on end as we approached, their snout seeming to sniff at the air as if something particularly foul had crossed close to it. Considering all the other scents emanating from the many workstations, most of which were actively toxic, maybe it had.
“Calamity,” the Forgeborn, hissed out surprisingly articulate, though nowhere as smooth and velvety as Calamity's own voice box. “What have you come seeking?”
Calamity set herself down in front of the larger Forgeborn. Despite her smaller size, it still leaned away from her. “I've come to make you an offer, Sharpnose.”
“What sort of offer? You know I’m not looking for scup-work.” Sharpnose replied, their ears swiveling between me and Calamity. A pair of triangular eyes matched the swivel while their head remained motionless.
Calamity laid one of her spiderleg-wings over their shoulder. “Oh Sharpnose, there's no reason to be coy. We all know you're trying to get out of the Forgelands and that no translator is willing to bond with you.”
Sharpnose let out a long hiss, followed by a series of rapid words in Forgespeak, which, if I'd learned it correctly from Inertia, mostly translated to insulting Calamity's entire family and her ancestry.
“Hey now,” I said, raising a hand, not because he was insulting Calamity but because said ancestry included Inertia. “You can't talk about Inertia like that.”
My interjection caused Sharpnose to falter for a second, their mouth literally snapping shut as their triangular eyes and ears flicked to me. Then the hairs across its entire body stood up as it started nodding rapidly. It issued apologies in both Forgespeak and halting Elinder. “This one sorry. It did not mean to insult the Forgelord. Greatest apologies to Forgelord Inertia.”
At this Calamity laughed, clapping the larger Forgeborn on the shoulder with one of her human hands despite still having one of her spider leg-wings wrapped around their shoulders. “Oh you know Inertia’d never take offense at anything insulting our ancestry.” Calamity let out a sigh that almost whistled, the most machine like sound I’d heard from her. “The offer is serious. He's looking for people like us to work for them.”
"Like us?" Sharpnose asked, turning their eyes and ears towards Calamity again. “We are not so similar.”
“You know, those of us who aren't so rigid we can't accept that humans are capable of creation.”
“Sharpnose knows nothing of the sort. Still…” He looked over his companions, who’d stayed silent the entire conversation. They weren’t as unique as sharp nose, though they also resembled mechanical wolf-men.
Both looked between Calamity and Sharpnose before giving nods. A few mumbled words of Forgespeak passed between them, the general intent being that they would follow his decision.
“Very well,” Sharpnose said, looking towards me. “We will hear your offer.”
Over the next half hour what started as a negotiation transitioned into an explanation of what we'd been doing in Cape Aeternia. It seemed I didn't have much to offer them. Not monetarily. However, they were quite interested in the idea of building a new home for their people, one where they’d have the same rights as any other mortal. Somewhere they could rub elbows with mortals while still having their own community.
While I was having my discussion, I picked up on several allusions to the fact Calamity was widely considered to be a mad scientist amongst her people. Considering even the most normal of Forgeborn would be considered a mad scientist among regular humans, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly had earned Calamity that sort of title.
Unfortunately, those details never came up.
What did come up was some of the other engineers in the working bay. A group of vaguely badger-esque forms, stout noses and forms both, with thick arms.
I thought they were there to volunteer or find out what the whole commotion was about but it turned out they were there to challenge Calamity.
“What do I get out of it?” Calamity asked after the challenge had been issued.
The Forgeborn that had challenged her said that they could have any of the resources in their engineering bay, which Calamity simply laughed at.
“You don't have anything of real value in your bay. Nothing worth the time it would take me to defeat you in an engineering challenge. No, I have a better idea.”
There was a bunch of hissing and cursing about her casting them aside at her words, like the rest of the Forgeborn had.
Which provoked her into laughing once more. “Oh, I'm not casting you aside, quite the opposite. What you have to offer is your services. That's the only thing you have that's valuable enough for me to wage a proper challenge.”
At this, the challenging Forgeborn went silent for several long seconds before asking for clarification, at which point she explained why we were there and what I was interested in.
That was the first time the Forgeborn even looked at me. I was kinda getting used to it.
They hissed out a question about whether or not I was a mascot, which was apparently a thing Calamity had done before, bringing random people through just to demonstrate to the Forgeborn that humans and elves weren't all awful, horrible monsters.
At least that was the general idea of what they were saying. Might've lost a bit in translation.
“So if you'll agree to a three year period of working for my friend here, on the assumption you lose of course, then I'll accept your challenge.” Calamity finished her explanation with a wave of two of her wing-spider legs in my direction, arms crossed across her torso.
The Forgeborn hissed back. To my surprise they added a condition of their own.
“Of course. It'd hardly be fair for you to work for him if he didn’t participate in the challenge. Don’t worry we’ll kick your metal asses,” Calamity said, placing both of her human-like hands on her hips. “Three years of service versus me never being allowed to set foot in Hellbrand Spire again. Your challenge is accepted.”
I blinked. “Am I taking part in a crafting challenge to secure the services of several forgeborn?”
“That’s what you’re here for, aren’t you?” Calamity asked, waggling her metallic eyebrows at me.
“Guess I am.”
My negotiations with Sharp Nose got put on hold as well. Apparently, if I won the crafting challenge, he was willing to give me even better terms. However, if we lost the crafting challenge, he insisted I provide twice as much land as we'd been about to agree on. Either way, I'd retain his services.
Technically, it was in my interest to do as well on this challenge as I could. On the other hand, I’d already been trying not to negotiate him down too much since I’d seen what Inertia did when given more land.
Still, as a matter or principle, I started pressing Calamity for details about this challenge We'd signed up for.
“It's simple really.” Calamity started even as she chased people out of one of the workshops. “We're both given access to the same set of resources and then tasked by a neutral third party to create something specific. Whoever creates the most interesting or effective product wins the challenge.”
“And how is it judged?”
“Oh, it's got several metrics, which I’ll explain as we go. Don't worry, I haven't lost a challenge like this in hundreds of years. If I had, they’d have kicked me out a long time ago.”
“Yeah I'm not too worried about you holding up your end. Not even too worried about me holding up my end to be honest.” Didn't mean to say that part out loud. What I was worried about was whether or not these judges she was talking about were going to be impartial.
As we drew attention, I'd been hearing more and more murmuring about the fact it was inappropriate for me to even be there. Not in the Hellbrand Spire but in the Forgelands in the first place. It seemed there remained a fair amount of anti-squishy sentiment.
Despite her initial preparations, it seemed the event had grown. The chamber soon emptied out, and instead of the small side workshop she’d been clearing out, we were ushered to set a much larger pair near the far end.
There was a lot of rumbling about the rigor we’d be held to, how this was a chance to prove Calamity had gone too far. And then, of all the things they could’ve issued as a challenge, they asked us to make a two-wheeled ground conveyance device.
They wanted us to make a motorcycle.
Somehow, I kept a straight face.
Instead of cobbling together a bike with rough tools and spells, scrounging materials from whatever was around, we’d have a full workshop plus a dearth of supplies. More than I could’ve dreamed of when we built Fang.
When they provided rubber, the laughter spilled out.
“This will be glorious,” I said, earning a glance from Calamity. She was already drawing up ideas before they'd finished stating the rules.
Meanwhile, I listened as carefully as I could. We had three days to complete the project. Since Forgeborn didn't need to sleep or rest or eat, that would normally an advantage for them, since they could do three days of constant work.
However, spells were permitted. Something Calamity had made use of in the past.
Since we were in the design phase, I slipped into Memory Palace. Soon I’d whipped up fresh designs of my own incorporating the materials at hand. Once I had them I popped out, used Second Quill to recreate my designs and handed them over to Calamity.
For the first time since I met her she went entirely still. Slowly, as if the words pained her, she said, “We can't use pre-existing designs.”
“They're not pre-existing, I replied, pointing to the nearby wheel I’d incorporated. “It's completely custom. The only part that isn't is the Forgeheart.”
She looked over it again, her ruby red eyes moving from the paper to my face. “How did you create these so quickly?”
“Cheated.”
She raised an eyebrow of steel, the only hint of which was the ever so subtle glistening in the forge light.
“You cheated? That would rather-”
“Sorry, it's an expression. I used a spell.” I held up a hand to interrupt her. “I meant I cast Memory Palace and did the design work in there while you were doing yours. Probably need some revisions since we should do the designs together. Still, feels like a good enough base. Don't you agree?”
She gave me a crooked half smile. “I think we can work with that, yes.”
Didn't take us long to set to work with a new design.
As it turned out, Calamity was not a big fan of using Forgehearts.
“It’s too much like tearing out a part of me,” she admitted in such a low tone I could barely hear her over the busy hammering coming from our neighbor’s workshop. “I think Inertia must have made herself numb to the sensation, having given form to so many, but for me…”
She didn’t finish, shaking her head. Instead she made modifications to the design. A physical design combined with a pair of enchantments that converted fire and wind affinity materials into thrust much more efficiently than a Forgeheart. And would allow higher speeds.
I was already thinking of ways we could use it to augment the Iron Curtain’s speed.
It was mostly specialized compression chambers. Upon reflection I wasn't sure if it was would help with the Iron Curtain. But it was certainly a better design for a motorcycle, especially one small enough for either of us to ride.
In the end we decided to go with a pair of motorcycles, one designed for each of us.
Afterall, we were both capable of using magic to shape the parts and speed things along compared to our competitors. Despite having to slip in to Memory Palace a few times, and my need to take breaks for food. Even managed to squeeze in a proper night's sleep half way through.
All that, and we still finished several hours Before our competitors Honestly, it hadn't been a fair contest, even if Calamity had been facing them alone.
Part of me wondered if they’d wanted to lose. Given her reputation and obvious skill, it was all I could think of. Even Inertia would have a hard time competing.
At first, there’d been a lot of clamoring from the Forgeborn about the designs I’d produced out of thin air. It’d gone away when I was able to modify them entirely after another half hour of shut eye in Memory Palace.
Over two days of design work proved to be worth it when the derogatory muttering turned into inspired awe. I was hoping that if our bikes turned out well, it might also improve Calamity's standing with the rest of the Forgeborn.
It seemed a big part of the reason they disliked or distrusted her was her use of magic, so if we could show it being used to design as well as craft…
While I had big dreams, they didn’t match up to reality.
Much as I might've wanted to prove the usefulness of magic that had never been anything the Forgeborn questioned. They used magic all the time. Not directly but in most of their crafting. Even our competitors used magic in their own version of... well it wasn't a bicycle or a motorbike, not that I was used to.
It was more like they’d taken a single axle from the back end of a pickup, ramped up the size of the wheels then stuck a seat in a bulb between them. The wheels were over ten feet tall so that they could be large enough to move the Forgeborn who sat in the middle around.
For novelty, at least to me, I felt like their design should’ve won.
Just watching their test performance, it wasn't a third as fast as our bikes nor was it efficient on fuel. It did have an excellent turn radius, tighter than ours, though only in the hands of an amateur rider.
"Well now that we have the bikes, there's only one thing left to do with them," Calamity said as we stood next to the others, having finished our own test runs hours earlier.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, gesturing to the numerous Forgeborn pouring over the two designs. "Aren't they being judged?"
“You can't judge a product's effectiveness inside the workshop,” Calamity said, earning a lot of hissing laughter from the rest of the workshop.
I didn’t disagree with the sentiment, but it did leave me with a simple question. “So how are they going to be judged then?”
“How else? We'll race them from the bottom of Hellbrand Spire to the top.”